Seattle employees making the minimum wage will see a mandatory raise starting next year, making them the highest paid minimum wage workers in the country.
Starting at the beginning of 2025, all employers regardless of size will be required to pay their employees at least $20.76 an hour.
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A minimum of 1,525,210 foreign nationals illegally crossed the Southwest U.S. border in fiscal 2024, according to preliminary data The Center Square exclusively obtained from a Border Patrol agent on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
The data excludes Office of Field Operations data, gotaway data (those who illegally entered and evaded capture), and northern border apprehension data, meaning the overall number is likely much higher.
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Twenty-three years after Islamic terrorists used airplanes to conduct the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, the federal agency created to protect Americans from national security threats “cannot ensure they are keeping high-risk noncitizens without identification from entering the country.”
The potentially high-risk noncitizens are being flown on domestic flights without identification, creating a public safety risk, according to the latest Office of Inspector General report assessing several federal agencies within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
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Swing state voters are feeling the pain of high prices and want to hear more from presidential candidates about their energy policies, newly released polling data shows.
A new Morning Consult/American Petroleum Institute poll obtained exclusively by The Center Square surveyed registered voters in the key swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
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Some 50,000 International Longshoremen’s Association members went on strike Tuesday against the East and Gulf Coast ports, snarling the flow of goods in what some predict could be the most disruptive strike in decades.
The strike, which extends from Maine to Texas, could affect everything from bananas to European beer and automobiles.
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American colleges and universities are accepting billions of dollars in foreign money without reporting it, according to a new report.
The National Association of Scholars released the report, which says that taking money from foreign governments and organizations without reporting it has become commonplace among American universities.
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New research shows that school enrollment has declined in over 5,000 public schools in the U.S., suggesting families are rejecting traditional schools because of the pandemic.
The Fordham Institute’s new study, conducted by researcher Sofoklis Goulas from the Brookings Institution, released Wednesday, found that families were over twice as likely to leave low-performing public schools.
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At least 26 people across four states have died as a result of the storm formerly known as Hurricane Helene that has produced widespread flooding and tornadoes.
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Gross domestic product rose at an annual rate of 3% in the second quarter of 2024, showing economic growth and increased consumer spending, according to a report.
The report, released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, shows gross domestic product over the last five years.
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Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are virtually tied in Nevada, according to a new poll.
According to the American Greatness/TIPP poll of 736 likely Nevada voters conducted from Sept. 23-25 in conjunction with TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics, Harris holds a slim 49.2% to 47.9% advantage over Trump in a head-to-head matchup, well within the poll’s 3.7% margin of error.
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Lawmakers are launching an inquiry into the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics after it significantly overestimated the number of jobs created last year, creating a far rosier picture of the U.S. economy than was actually the case.
The federal government announced earlier this year that its previous jobs data had far overestimated how many jobs the U.S. economy created last year. In fact, the federal data was revised down by a third, or roughly 800,000 jobs, the largest revision since 2009.
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Virginia’s current political contests could hardly be closer, according to the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies Fall 2024 poll.
A little over a year out, the poll showed Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-07, and Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the leading candidates for the commonwealth’s 2025 gubernatorial race, in a dead heat. When respondents were asked who they would vote for between the two “if the election were held today,” 39% indicated Spanberger, and 39% indicated Earle-Sears. Twelve percent didn’t know who they’d vote for.
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The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Visa alleging illegal monopolization of debit markets.
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Haitians are not just arriving in Springfield, Ohio, but also in small rural towns nationwide as a result of several Biden-Harris administration policies.
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While Dominion Energy works to install a record-breaking solar project at Dulles International Airport and an offshore wind farm along Virginia’s coast, it’s also advancing the state’s green energy ecosystem in other ways.
The utility provider recently announced a new program to make owning an electric vehicle easier.
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A package of bills to ensure employee benefits plans prioritize financial well-being over “woke” policies has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.
Outgoing Virginia Republican Rep. Bob Good sponsored the Protecting Americans’ Investments from Woke Policies Act and the No Discrimination in My Benefits Act, which cleared the House 217-206.
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A top Democratic donation processor, Act Blue, is facing an investigation over concerns that the donation processing service is being used to circumvent campaign finance laws.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee launched the investigation, citing “reports of potentially fraudulent and illicit financial activity” in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
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An app that allows U.S. service members to anonymously post photos of the conditions in military barracks and dining facilities includes images of mold, mice, maggots, cockroaches, brown tap water and broken AC units, among other problems.
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After months of discussion and the adoption of similar programs by some of its neighbors, Loudoun County leadership voted down a guaranteed income pilot program.
In a surprising turn of events, Loudoun County’s Board of Supervisors abandoned the pursuit of a new economic mobility pilot in a 3-5-1 vote. Months earlier, in May, the board had voted 6-2-1 in favor of appropriating $2 million of county fund balance dollars to the program’s development.
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Existing home sales fell in August, while sale prices continued to climb, according to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors.
Existing home sales fell 2.5% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.86 million. That’s down 4.2% from one year ago.
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Nearly 50 percent of American children and almost three-quarters of adult Americans are obese or overweight. Forty percent of 18-year-olds have a diagnosed mental health issue. Autism incidence has risen from 1 in 150 to 1 in 36 since 2000—in California it is 1 in 22. Americans aren’t just sick. They’re being destroyed.
That’s the conclusion that Calley and Casey Means draw in their #1 New York Times bestselling book, Good Energy. In the book—as well as in a fascinating interview with Tucker Carlson—the Means lay out a case against Big Pharma, Big Agriculture, and Big Government. And their work has caught the ear of both Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) and Donald Trump, who are now running on a unity ticket to make America healthy again.
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As early voting gets underway Friday in Virginia, a new poll shows Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in a dead heat in the commonwealth.
A poll conducted by the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington shows Harris leads Trump by 1%, with the vice president at 47% and the former president at 46%. The poll was conducted among 1,000 Virginians on Sept. 3-9, before the first and what appears to be the only debate between Harris and Trump.
The result is a statistical tie, given the margin of error is +/- 3.0%.
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The U.S. House passed a bill to deport illegal foreign nationals convicted of domestic violence and sex-related offenses, including sex crimes against children, but not without controversy.
Nearly all Democrats voted against the bill filed by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-SC, the Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act, on Thursday. They attacked the bill before they voted on it; Mace said their remarks were “shameful.”
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More than 2.75 million foreign nationals have illegally crossed the U.S. border so far this fiscal year.
That total represents nationwide encounters and apprehensions at ports of entry and between ports of entry, including at the northern and southwest borders. Combined, they total 2,756,646 after U.S. Customs and Border Protection released August data. The federal government’s fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday the state has the jurisdiction to prosecute Ryan Wesley Routh for attempted murder and will be more transparent in its investigation than the federal government.
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The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability is demanding answers about any ties Democratic vice-presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has to the Communist Party of China. Walz has said he’s proud of his ties to China dating to 1989.
The committee has spent several years investigating CCP political warfare operations involving influencing “important figures in elite political circles to the benefit of the communist People’s Republic of China.”
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Cryptocurrency scams and fraud in 2023 contributed to an estimated $5.6 billion in losses, a report from one of the federal government’s top law enforcement agencies says.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Cryptocurrency Fraud Report for 2023 found that the vast majority of losses – about $3.9 million – were related to cryptocurrency investment scams.
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Federal authorities in Florida on Monday filed two gun charges against the suspect in what the FBI is calling an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, the second in two months.
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Years after the passage of federal COVID-era relief and the subsequent loss of likely hundreds of billions of those taxpayer dollars, lawmakers are still unsure where that money went, how to get it back, and seemingly have done little to prevent it from happening again.
Federal watchdog and other reports estimate anywhere from $200 billion to half a trillion was lost to waste, fraud and abuse across various federal and state COVID-era programs.
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The federal government borrowed $1.9 trillion in the first eleven months of fiscal year 2024, including $380 billion in August, a startling amount as federal watchdogs sound the alarm on spending.
Those borrowing figures come from the latest Monthly Treasury Statement from the Treasury Department.
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U.S. Secret Service agents shot at and later arrested a man with an AK-47 rifle near Donald Trump’s West Palm Beach, Fla., golf club Sunday afternoon while Trump was on the course. The FBI said it is investigating the incident as an attempted assassination of the former president, the second in two months.
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Twice the number of detainers were issued for criminal illegal foreign nationals under the Trump administration than the Biden administration, according to a new analysis of federal data published by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). The nonprofit data research center is affiliated with the Newhouse School of Public Communications and Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.
Detainers are issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), otherwise known as “immigration holds,” to apprehend and detain often violent individuals wanted for a crime in another country, arrested or convicted of one in the U.S., or placed in removal proceedings by a federal immigration judge.
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U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday said the 2025 vote count would be designated a “National Special Security Event.”
The first-time designation comes after supporters of former President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while Congress was certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory.
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A select group of Loudoun County residents may soon receive an extra “no strings attached” $500 per month from the county.
Loudoun County’s Board of Supervisors voted in its most recent finance committee meeting to move forward with plans to establish a guaranteed income pilot project, as several other Virginia localities have done — along with more than 150 other localities across the country, according to Mayors for a Guaranteed Income.
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by Bethany Blankley The greatest number of Canadians who’ve illegally entered the U.S. or attempted to illegally enter in recorded U.S. history has been reported under the Biden-Harris administration and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration. Since fiscal 2021 through July 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 150,701 Canadians illegally…
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The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s updated Resource Management Plan for North Dakota could cost the state $34 million a year for the next 30 years, North Dakota officials said in a protest filed with the agency.
The plan announced in August bans oil and gas leased on 4 million acres, which is about 99% of federal lands in the state, according to Gov. Doug Burgum. Forty-four percent of federally-owned fluid mineral acreage would also not be available for leasing.
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A bipartisan group of state attorneys general sent Congress a letter Monday, urging lawmakers to pass a bill that requires a U.S. surgeon general on every algorithm-driven social media platform.
Forty-two state attorneys general, led by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, signed onto the letter. Rosenblum serves as the President of the National Association of Attorneys General.
The move comes as United States Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy called for this to happen in June.
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The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would prohibit electric-vehicle batteries from Gotion and several other foreign companies from being used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
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Virginia may not be in play after all in the 2024 presidential contest, judging by the results of a new poll by The Washington Post and George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government.
The poll, conducted Wednesday through Sunday, shows Vice President Kamala Harris leading former President Donald Trump by 8% (51%-43%), starkly contrasting with polls administered in the late spring and earlier summer when President Joe Biden was still the Democratic nominee.
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Fourteen states have joined an effort to cut chronic student absenteeism by 50% over the next five years.
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The Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a management alert to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to make it aware of an urgent issue: ICE is incapable of monitoring hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied children (UACs) released into the country by the Biden-Harris administration.
“We found ICE cannot always monitor the location and status of unaccompanied migrant children who are released from DHS and HHS custody,” HHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said in a memo to the deputy director of ICE.
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Localities with “sanctuary” policies in Virginia have grown, many butting up against vital military or national security instillations, posing potential threats, according to a former Homeland Security and immigration senior official.
Last month, immigration policy think tank the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released an updated map of localities that have adopted sanctuary policies, which showed a surge in the commonwealth totaling 84.
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After failing to hold news conferences or give live interviews, and flipping on a range of issues, Vice President Kamala Harris is now slightly trailing former President Donald Trump in several key swing states two months before the election. New polls show they are statistically tied nationally.
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Twenty-three states are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision that the attorneys general say could be a threat to the energy industry.
A brief filed this week by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and 22 other attorneys general wants the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out the decision, saying that it is as much about “federalism and state sovereignty as it is about environmental law.”
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The University of Virginia tops the 2025 free speech ranking on college campuses, a first for the school founded by Thomas Jefferson.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression surveyed over 250 colleges and universities in its rankings. The foundation survey, administered by College Pulse, surveyed nearly 60,000 undergraduates enrolled full-time in four-year degree programs.
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The deadline to replace Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for recipients whose benefits were electronically stolen or skimmed is fast approaching.
A September 30, 2024, deadline looms for those who had their benefits stolen between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2024, to replace their lost benefits. This comes after Congress passed a law in December 2022, hoping to reduce SNAP benefit theft; the law set this deadline to replace benefits. People must file their claims within 30 days of the theft occurring to ensure they receive payment.
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Reputation associated with his military record already shattered, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz now faces a reckoning tied to a signature education accomplishment – feeding schoolchildren – from a congressional committee chaired by a North Carolina congresswoman.
Called the “largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the nation,” U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., on Wednesday sent a letter and subpoena to Walz and his state administration associated with the federal child nutrition programs and Feeding Our Future, and to the Biden administration’s U.S. Department of Agriculture and its Office of Inspector General.
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The state of Florida is suing the Biden-Harris administration to obtain information on how many illegal foreign nationals convicted of violent crimes who served time in prison were released into the U.S. instead of being deported.
“Historically, when illegal aliens were brought to the U.S. to be prosecuted for their crimes, it was well understood that the aliens would be deported once they have served their sentence,” Florida’s lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Ashley Moody, states. “That was until the Biden-Harris Administration implemented their shockingly irresponsible immigration policy, pushing unknown numbers of dangerous criminals straight from federal prison into our communities and causing chaos, anarchy, and crime.”
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August ended on a high note for a free market conservative think tank that helps public employees opt out of their unions.
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In addition to the 26 states protecting blocking the Title IX revisions put in place under the Biden-Harris administration, hundreds of colleges across 48 states will do the same.
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